The Legal Regime for the Conservation of Biodiversity in India: An Overview

India is a land of rich biodiversity including flora, fauna and aquatic animals. From a biodiversity angle, the whole country can be divided into 18 biosphere reserves and 4 of the 36 biodiversity hotspots. Western Ghats is the richest biodiversity zone in India consisting of 7402 species of flowering plants and 1814 species of non-flowering plants. Undoubtedly, this vast reservoir of biodiversity resources needs to be protected for the benefit of the people living in this country. Keeping in view this vision, the Government of India passed the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 to give effect to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 that strives for sustainable, fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilisation of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge. In 2021, the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was introduced in Lok Sabha on 16th December 2021 which was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) four days later because of concerns over the proposed amendments favouring the industry and contradicting the spirit of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The Committee’s report was tabled in Parliament on 2nd August 2022. The Bill brought in the light of recommendations of the Committee was put up in the current Monsoon session of the Parliament and it was passed by Lok Sabha on 25th July,2023, and by Rajya Sabha on August 1,2023. The amended Bill promotes ‘ease of doing business’ and would exempt users of codified traditional knowledge and AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) practitioners from sharing benefits with local communities. This paper tries to explore the efficacy of these legislations in preserving and protecting the rich biodiversity of the country and also proposes some remedial measures.